HISTORY. 21 the box. The servant fell into the snare, was really tempted to take a pinch, and the fly escaped without being observed. In a short time the Defturdar returned to the room, found that the flv had escaped from its confinement, and immediately asked the servant "Who had opened the box?"

"• I, sir," he confidently replied ; " I took a pinch."

This liberty he paid with his life : the ruffian had him flogged to death.

A negro bought milk of a women for five paras,* drank it, but forgot the payment ; the woman complained to the Defturdar, who happened to be in the neighbourhood. " Well," said he, " I will immediately investigate the affair," and ordered the offending negro to be instantly brought before him. When he appeared, he asked him, if he had bought milk of that woman and not paid for it ? The negro in fear denied it. The barbarian immediately ordered the abdomen of the negro to be cut open, to see whether his stomach contained the milk. It was, indeed, found ; m hereupon he quietly said to the woman : " Thou art right, take these five paras, and now go thy ways."

In his garden the Defturdar had a den, in which he kept a lion ; the animal became gradually so Accounts, it would appear, are kept in current piastres of Egypt, each piastre being equivalent to forty paras. • Fifteen and a half or sixteen piastres are =: one Spanish dollar ; hence one piastre = three pence halfpenny of English money, and five paras would, therefore, be about one halfpenny English. For further information vii/c Encyclopaedia Britanica, vol. iii. Article Egypt.